Law & Disorder —

“We have to do it in the Facebook”

Tech takes the stage at a debate between candidates to lead the RNC.

We're all of a week into 2009, and already Republican National Committee Chair Mike Duncan has a lock on quotation of the year:

We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today.

Social media: You know, for kids! This comes from yesterday's debate between candidates for Duncan's job, which you can watch in full via C-SPAN. Call it confirmation bias, but I think the discussion of tech at the event supports what I wrote last week: They've got a lot of ground to make up here, but there's a strain of technofetishism afflicting some conservative activists that can only lead to heartbreak. Witness this strange exchange, as reported by the Washington Post:

"Let me just say that I have 4,000 friends on Facebook," contributed [Ken] Blackwell, putting his hand on [Katon] Dawson's and [Saul] Anuzis's knees. "That's probably more than these two guys put together, but who's counting, you know?" Acknowledged Saltsman: "I'm not sure all of us combined Twitter as much as Saul."

Anuzis claimed he had "somewhere between 2- and 3,000" Facebook friends, which prompted Blackwell to remind the audience that he has 4,000 friends on the social networking site by waving four fingers behind Anuzis's head.

There were plenty of younger Republicans who took time away from their hippety-hop and their Facebooks to Twitter-cover the debate, several of whom seemed to have the same reaction. Blogger and former McCain campaign aide Soren Dayton urged them to "stop with the trivial technology fetishizing," while Katie Harbath, deputy eCampaign director for Rudy Giuliani, snarked that it sounded like they'd entered the "buzzword round." And from Republican tech consultant Chad Miles: "Duncan doesn't need Twitter because he has GOP.com. Gag. FAIL."

That seemed to be the general consensus about Duncan—FAIL—though I saw less agreement about who to support FTW. If there's silver lining here for the GOP, it was that there were plenty of folks in the audience who realized that even the more wired guys on stage don't quite get it yet.